Thailand!

So I have been in Thailand for about 3 days now, but it feels like much longer. I have been staying in Krabi at a good little guesthouse. After Bangladesh, it feels so civilized here. People actually follow basic traffic laws, there are street lights, and turning signals are used as the manufacturer intended. I am loving the cheap food here and I've been having a pastry and a mini pineapple for breakfast - for about 50 cents total. On the weekends here there is a night market with tons of food stalls selling various meats, rices, fruit, drinks, you name it. Most things are on a stick or you get a little take out bag. There is also tons of jewelery and clothing. It has been a good place for me to practice haggling and, frankly, I suck. Thank goodness I have several more weeks and markets to practice.

Krabi town is on a river, not the ocean, but the entire province as these huge ridiculous limestone cliffs everywhere. They're gorgeous. Yesterday I took a sorngthaew (spelling is something like that) which is pretty much a truck with 2 benches across the back that do local routes of transportation regularly. I went to a beach in a nearby town. According to the guidebooks its not a beach worth stopping at, but I thought it was lovely. The town felt really touristy - full of resorts, and even a Best Western Hotel. But it was nice to finally get in the water - which was ridiculously warm and felt wonderful.

Today I went rock climbing in a nearby place called Railay which is pretty much famous, worldwide for climbing. I started out the morning with a couple girls from Singapore and our guide. It was high tide so went went into the island a bit to a small rock wall. We did 3 climbs there and my poor technique resulted in a banged up knee, but it was a ton of fun and you get a real rush when you are able to make it to the top. After lunch we headed to a different rock wall that was on the beach. It was much bigger (about 30m was the highest climb I did) and at the top you had a beautiful view of the area. I could not believe how much the water went out a low tide here - a good 400m it looked like, although I suck at estimating. There were lots of people climbing on this wall, and after 3 more climbs I was done, with shaking arms, and bruised knees. So I head through some limestone caves to the other side of the peninsula and a gorgeous beach. This area is resort central, but it is low season so the beach wasn't too busy. I spent a couple hours alternating between baking to a deeper shade of red (after what seems like a million applications of sunscreen too!) and cooling off in the water.

Tomorrow I head across the Malay peninsula to Koh Phangnan, an island that apparently has some great beaches. It is where the full moon party is held each month, but that's too crazy of a scene for me so I timed it to arrive a few days after the party.